Death Seer
by HelloSong
Summary: Old Earth is long gone. New Earth is almost exactly like Old Earth except for a tiny, some might even say miniscule, detail. Paranormal activity is real. As if to combat this phenomenon, people have developed what Old Earth would refer to as psychic powers. One of these people is Kaoru. But Kaoru doesn t just see spirits and demons. She can also see Reapers. And that s a problem.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character`s or backstories from Rurouni Kenshin.

Please enjoy the story. ^-^

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He tore off the matted clothing. Ignoring the brownish-red liquid stain, it left on the forest floor as he strode toward the waterfall. He had to get clean.

Stepping into the rushing bullets of ice, he let them pelt his body- letting them punish him. It was no better than he deserved.

He had killed them. He had killed those spirits. And he called himself a priest.

His teeth began to chatter, and his lips began to turn blue. But still, he remained until he began to lose feeling in his legs. He would not dishonor himself by committing suicide, and breaking the most important of his vows.

Slowly, he removed himself from the cold and returned to his camp. He would survive. He would survive for her.

He would fulfill his vow.

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Kaoru groaned as her back slammed against and then through the rice paper door. Damn poltergeists.

Hearing the whistle of air, she flung herself to the side very nearly impaled by a replica of a Shrine`s Komainu. The glass statue of the guardians dogs shattered next to her, and she couldn`t help but curse. The stupid poltergeist was toying with her.

She had been fighting with it for the last three minutes, and it had only thrown sacred object replicas, she put the emphasis on replicas because this was a residence after all not a shrine. It was taunting her. A very unpriestly like fury filled her.

She just needed to touch the thing once. Once was all she needed, and it would be purified.

"Kaoru!" she heard her apprentice shout, and she saw him go charging at the poltergeist. He managed to get a hand on it, but her apprentice`s control wasn`t there yet. Instead of purifying the poltergeist, he only managed to singe it.

But it had been enough. The poltergeist reared towards her apprentice mistaking the boy as the greater threat. Kaoru allowed a smirk before lunging herself. Her hand came in contact with the poltergeist, and it screeched in rage.

She braced herself. The problem with contact purification was that she always had a nice blowback of memories to accompany the process. She saw the spirit`s life.

She saw it as a happy child. And then there was a pond. She, the child, had just wanted to play. She couldn`t tell anyone though because this was a neighbor`s pond, and her mother would scold her. But she just wanted to play for a little.

She ran onto the ice and began sliding across the surface. The ice was so marvelous so slick, and ever so wonderful. She could do flips and turns, and it always held.

Until it didn`t.

PLUNGE!

She was drowning. She felt the water fill her lungs. And it was cold- _so cold_. And then there had been nothing until she woke up.

But no one could see her. She had tried to leave the house and the surrounding area to return to her family, but she couldn`t. She became angry. She began to lash out. She hadn`t meant to kill the dog.

But that`s when the people began to notice her. She discovered that their recognition of her gave her power. At first, she resisted feeding off their terror, it was wrong- _so wrong_.

Her mother would be so mad.

But her mother, she missed her mother.

Maybe if she fed off their energy she would become more powerful. Then, she could escape this area. She just wanted to see her family again. Surely, that wasn`t evil.

Kaoru yanked herself out of the memory and noticed that her cheeks were now damp. The poltergeist little girl turned towards Kaoru mouthing, "Sorry" before disappearing into the purifying light.

Kaoru noted the portal was yellow. That was good. It meant the child was entering a nice place. Grey portals meant they went to judging. And purple portals meant, well she didn`t know, but only the truly bad things she dealt with went through the purple portals.

The grey portal for judging was generally only used for children beyond a certain age. The judging weighed the good points of an individual against their mistakes. But children had an incomplete sense of morality. So, it was easier for them to become malignant spirits. At least, that`s what the reaper had told her.

Generally, the reaper was there though. She yanked her head around hoping to get a glimpse of brown hair and was rewarded by a sense of vertigo.

"Ugly," she heard her brat of an apprentice yell. "You know not to move too quickly after purifying a spirit. Last time you got sick all over my new shoes."

She wanted to retort that her money had bought those shoes, but sadly she was trying to suppress aforementioned vomit. She stuck her head between her legs and that`s when she saw the reaper Sanosuke.

"Hey missy," he said winking at her from a hunched over position. "Little bit of sloppy footwork there but good job." She blushed at his form of praise, not too long ago she had had the most embarrassing of crushes on the idiot, but remained where she was. This whole side effect to cleansing of a spirit was inconvenient, but not the worst price she had seen others in her position pay.

Generally priests and/or priestesses in her position paid a price for their purification. Most priests or priestesses paid with extensive sleep or loss of pigment. These were temporary conditions.

Really powerful priests or priestesses paid with life force.

Yahiko, her apprentice, often lost feeling in a limb if he expended enough power. She was the only person she knew who got dizzy and might puke as a result.

She just _loved_ being special.

However, her price meant she could purify multiple spirits at once with almost no damaging effects to her body; in fact, she often didn`t pay a price at all that her body registered.

The spirit today had been unusually strong being able to manifest as a poltergeist. And as such, she had expended about 12 purifications worth of energy when dealing with it.

Slowly, she stood up. And as soon as she certain she wasn`t going to be sick, she flung herself at him hugging the rooster haired reaper. She hadn`t seen him in a while which didn`t bode well for the state of the spirit world.

He winced on impact. And that`s when she noticed the bandage.

"Sano," she stepped back quickly surveying him. That`s when she saw the bandage begin to bleed. "Yahiko," she snapped, "go get some hot water and the bandages from the car." Her apprentice scrambled to obey as frightened by the sight of the reaper bleeding as she was.

She hadn`t known death could bleed.

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"Where is he?" the man`s voice was quiet, but the boy knew the depth of danger encased in those words aimed at the guard bowing in from of them. 

"He escaped," the guard whimpered unable to look their commander in the face. How pitiful. But who could blame the man? He was going to die.

The boy`s smiled broadened at the thought.

The commander`s flames ripped through the guard`s body. Failure was not tolerated because only the strong survived.

Only the strong deserved to live. Only the strong were right. Only the strong survived.

With this dogma in mind, the boy stepped forward his ever present smile gracing a beautiful face. "I`ll retrieve him for you Master Shishio," the boy said to his master. "Only let me know how you would like him?"

His master grinned through his metallic suit at his fanatical apprentice. "Destroy him Sōjirō. Destroy Sagara Sanosuke. We can`t let the manslayer know of our plan just yet." The apprentice bowed and slipped out of the room.

Sagara Sanosuke must die.

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Kaoru sighed in relief as they _finally_ reached her residence. Her pet German Shepard bounded up to meet them before backing slightly and growling. The German Shepard, Miho, didn`t like spirits or reapers. That`s why Kaoru had gotten her.

Spiritualists tended to attract spirits to them. The extra power they exuded along with the subconscious whispers of purification was irresistible to a roaming spirit. So, she kept her barriers up and well powered. And Miho warned her of any incoming spirits that might be wily enough to sneak through- not that that had ever happened.

Kaoru was incredibly strong.

Of course, Sanosuke who was a reaper was immune to her protections. Sanosuke, while no danger to her, was apparently not the only reaper in the world- hence why she had gotten the dog.

But as of right now, these thoughts were of no consequence. While she always sent families away during purification rituals, families had neighbors. Neighbors who might call the cops if she carried an unconscious man out.

He just had to pass out. Stupid guy. He could be so inconvenient at times…at least, her house was on the edge of civilization.

Yahiko and she had rigged a stretcher to support Sanosuke, but it was still going to be difficult to move him. At least, he didn`t appear to be bleeding out.

..As far as she could tell that is. Of course until today, she hadn`t even known reapers could bleed. So…

"Yahiko," she snapped desperate for a distraction. That`s when she noticed her apprentice was starting to look green _and_ struggling to hide it.

That was odd. Yahiko had never had a problem with blood. Plus, the dog was barking.

Shit the dog was barking.

"Help me lift this-" her words with an undercurrent of urgency were cut off by a sudden gale of wind. Her senses flared to life, and she felt the presence of something- something that`s power smashed through her mental shields.

It was a boy- a smiling boy.

"Yahiko, hurry," she yelled now frantic, but her apprentice was frozen. She could feel Yahiko`s power trying to fight against the onslaught, but he was young. His clairvoyance and purification capabilities hadn`t fully developed. And whatever, it was well… it wasn`t some wayward spirit.

She gathered her power around her, and the power struggled to eat up the rays the boy was giving off. The pressure caused her to bend to one knee.

The thing managed to clear the portal. Shit. Was it a demon? Because the portal it had come from was purple. Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Ah, Sanosuke Sagara, you fled to the human world. How… fitting," the creature said. Kaoru shivered. Its vessel was so young looking. The kid had to be about Yahiko`s age. But why would it take such a young body? That`s when she noticed the energy pattern. It was the same as Sanosuke`s except chaotic as if in discord with itself.

They were dealing with a reaper.

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Yahiko felt Kaoru`s horror. He felt the well of the creature`s rage despite its smiling body. He felt Sanosuke`s panic as the reaper awoke. He was an empath after all.

So, he felt everything.

And that was the problem. The creature`s aura of malevolence was so strong that he was having difficulty even staying conscious. It would be so nice to be sleep right now. He just wanted to close his eyes for a bit. He needed a respite from these emotions.

"Yahiko," he heard his name called, and his mind snapped back into focus. It was Kaoru. She was counting on him. He needed to move. Why couldn`t he move? Kaoru couldn`t die. He couldn`t go through that again.

Her soothing power managed to wash over him. And he felt the burden of the other`s emotions lift slightly.

He managed to get an arm to move.

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Kaoru surrounded Yahiko with her power. He couldn`t die. She already had lost so much. He just couldn`t die.

"Yahiko," she bit out, "get inside now." She felt her apprentice shift slightly hesitatingly. Realizing he wouldn`t go alone her mind quickly presented a substitute, "Take Sanosuke with you. I`ll follow."

It was a lie.

Kaoru couldn`t move and keep Yahiko mobile at the same time. Her power`s drawback was that she became dizzy and vomited. She was already projecting enough power to induce the Yahiko`s power and mind were too confused to distinguish truth from lie at the moment. She laughed to herself bitterly as she felt him drag Sanosuke`s body up the front steps into the house. She didn`t want to die but if it meant saving Yahiko.

She felt Yahiko enter the house. She felt him turn back towards her. And she felt his pounding when she used what little was left of her purification powers to seal the door psychically against leaving and entering.

Then, she coughed up blood. The amount of power was killing her.

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Sōjirō was angry.

Well, Sōjirō was always angry. Sometimes, he thought he`d been born angry. So he had learned to smile to hide this anger.

 _His_ _family_ had made him this way- _his family_ from long, long ago. He remembered the day he slew them. The day he had learned to put the ugly weakness of his to use. His anger made him powerful. It made him _strong_.

He remembered the blood staining his hands. Dripping down from the katana, he had used. A small piece of guilt had tried to lodge itself in his heart that day- a piece of guilt that he stamped on-destroyed. Reapers on Shishio`s side had no such use of human emotions.

Reapers were strong.

Humans were weak.

But this _human`s_ behavior was unacceptable. Didn`t she understand? Didn`t she get it? Didn`t she know if she didn`t surrender the other reaper he would kill her? He was stronger than her. So, he was right. He must be right.

And yet… she kept fighting.

It was of no consequence. Even though the human held no interest to him, he would destroy her. He flew at her readying his finishing technique. That is until he fell right out of the air.

He hit the ground with a thud.

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Kaoru`s felt her power`s pull at the creature`s and suddenly something snapped. She had nullified, for just a little while, his reaper powers.

Elation filled her for a second. To nullify a reaper`s power, that was an accomplishment. Then, the realization hit.

It was also a death sentence.

Everyone knew reapers killed humans like her. At least, that`s what her father had said. And her father had always been right- even about his own death. By nullifying the reaper, she rendered him human again. Reapers always started out as humans. That meant if she could shoot him, he would die.

If he got too close, she would purify the rest of his spirit out of him. She would kill the reaper. Damn, the consequences.

Grasping for the gun hidden in her priestess habit, she felt the cool metal against her feverish flesh. This was it. She had only one shot at this- both literally and figuratively.

She couldn`t help but grin at the pun her thoughts had spun.

"No Kenshin!" she heard Sano`s voice cry through the wall of energy. And then, all she knew was black.

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"Kaoru," she heard Yahiko calling her name frantically. How odd, he only called her Kaoru when he was worried. But the poltergeist had been a fairly easy job. So why?

She stiffened eyes widening. Shit. There had been a reaper.

Reflexively, she rolled out of bed attempting to tug Yahiko behind her. That`s when her knees gave out.

"Ugly," she heard her apprentice cry. "You can`t afford to bash your face in to the floor. You`re ugly enough as-," some hidden well of strength managed to supply Kaoru`s arms with the power to _playfully_ strangle her apprentice.

It was a medical marvel.

"Yahiko," she growled as her apprentice choked. "Show some concern for your teacher."

"Hey missy," a voice came from the doorway. The sight of an alive rooster haired reaper made Kaoru`s unease vanish.

"Sanosuke," she squealed stumbling as she tried to scramble up. "You`re okay!" She got ready to leap for him only to be stopped by an irate looking beauty that appeared behind his back.

"If you touch him, you`ll reopen all his old wounds," the black haired beauty said glancing down at Kaoru in disdain and some other emotion.

Kaoru blushed, the supposed doctor`s tone catching her off guard. However, anger, an emotion Kaoru was well acquainted with, quickly replaced the sentiment.

"This is my house," she started only to stop as she realized that she wasn`t in her home.

The walls surrounding her whispered of power. The furniture in the room practically vibrated with energy. And she felt more than saw the healing enchantments humming as they did their work.

Kaoru was suddenly glad that she had to actively express her nullifying talent. Based on the look the doctor woman was giving her, Kaoru knew the doctor wouldn`t have appreciated a full takedown of her enchanted infirmary.

"Now Megumi," she heard Sanosuke say in the background. "I`m almost as good as new. The little miss here was the one coughing up blood."

"Regardless," the doctor huffed. "Neither of you two should be straining yourself. And besides that," the doctor`s voice began to rise in irritation, "what were _you_ doing in the human world? Playing with mortals as per usual," Kaoru winced at the accusation in the woman/Megumi`s tone.

"Geez, Megumi, you know I can`t tell you that," Sanosuke said rubbing the back of his head and laughing. "Besides, you`re cute when you`re jealous."

The woman just huffed not bothering or perhaps unable to deny it.

"So," Kaoru finally spoke again her voice reverberating oddly in the silence. "What exactly happened?"

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Kaoru angrily yanked off a hunk of bread from her plate.

 _She was a prisoner_.

Sure the accommodations weren`t awful. And she wasn`t dead which was always a plus. But still _a prisoner._

How could Sanosuke do this to her? He had come to Yahiko and her for help; and because they helped him, Yahiko and she had been taken prisoner.

Naturally, that wasn`t how Sanosuke explained it. Instead, he had just said, "You are under protective custody right now missy. But don`t worry. Everything will be straightened out soon."

Then, he had laughed continuing on and saying, "Kenshin just thought he saw something is all. I`m sure it`s nothing." They had even taken Yahiko, protesting nonetheless, with them.

Sano knew she wouldn`t leave without Yahiko.

Of course, Kaoru knew what whoever this Kenshin was had seen. He had seen her operating her nullification powers at almost full capacity. He had seen her take down the other reaper. So why hadn`t he killed her?

Kaoru shuddered.

Screech!

The sound of the chair by her bedside being moved yanked Kaoru out of her thoughts and to the appearance of the man beside her.

He was beautiful.

The man had long red hair that would make most women jealous. And big blue eyes almost like an anime cartoon. Kaoru couldn`t help but wonder what ethnicity from old Earth the eyes and hair had come from.

Excitement filled her. Everyone knew Reapers were often humans from long ago. Maybe he knew what her ethnicity was since they had similar hair colors. She was so tired of being a mutt on New Earth.

The man`s voice returned her to the present. "Your name is Kaoru Kamiya," he started. Blue eyes carefully watching her own. "No middle name." Kaoru squinted at that. She didn`t know what a middle name was.

"You had a father and mother, but both passed away. Your mother due to illness, and your father during a demon attack." He watched her carefully, but Kaoru had steeled herself. He couldn`t know.

He couldn`t know her father had died killing a reaper.

"Your father died killing a reaper?" the red head looked surprised at that information before leaning in. Kaoru startled by his sudden access to this new information attempted to lean away, but she was only able to press herself against the headboard.

She could smell him. He smelled like old world cherry blossoms.

Suddenly, she very aware of the white shift she was wearing and just how close he was. A blush suffused her cheeks. His reaper energy thrummed pleasantly along her own aura.

He felt so right. She wanted to relax into him. She wanted to give herself up to these feelings.

But wait.

Reapers killed humans like her. She had to do something. She darted her eyes sideways looking for a weapon.

With enviable speed, the man was suddenly out of her personal space and leaning against the wall. His bangs now covering his eyes, and she thought she saw a flash of gold.

"I`m not going to hurt you," he growled seemingly angered. And that`s when she realized.

"You can read my thoughts," she breathed feeling sick. She had to get away. He would kill her. Her father had taught her that.

She scrambled out of bed. She had to get to the door. She had to get Yahiko out.

Abruptly, she was at the door. Except instead of reaching for the handle and running out, he was pressed up against it by a powerful body. A very strong, warm, powerful body.

An annoying sensation of heat began to pool in her lower body and elation filled her at the feeling of his thighs on either side of her body.

What was he? Could reapers be succubi?

She looked up her blue eyes meeting his now gold ones and noticed the slightly unfocused look in them. Whatever _it_ was. It was affecting him as well. That she could use.

She aimed a knee. And crack!

She was running out the door and down the hallway leaving the red head behind her curled up on the floor.

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Author Note: I`m having trouble with page breaks. So if anyone has any advice, please let me know. ^-^


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